Work in Progress: Portraits

Here are six portraits for the work in progress critique.

Anna Gaskell

For my photographer I chose Anna Gaskell.  She's an American photographer born in Des Moines Iowa.  She now lives in New York. She attended Bennington College and the Art Institute of Chicago for her BFA, and Yale University of Art for her MFA.  I found that she did a series based off of Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland.  She's had exhibits in the Guggenheim and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, among other's in Florida, Massachusetts, and Kansas.  Her Wonder series cast two twin teenage girls to recreate the events in the novel using bright colors and a sort of surreal compositions to create a dream like quality.

"...more about me..."

I agree in some ways with this quote and disagree in others.  While I do agree that whenever you create a picture or work of art you impose your own meanings and interpretations to it.  This can easily be done with portraits, so that the portrait reflects how you view that person.  On the other hand, the picture is still of that person and others will interpret the meaning of the portrait differently than you would.  No matter what meaning you try to impose it will be interpreted differently and that's when the photograph is more about the subject.

Content and Context of a Portrait

Images vary greatly depending on the intent of the photographer.  On Facebook, the "photographer" is often also the subject, or someone close to the subject.  In those instances, images are normally used to portray who the subject is in a simple way.  Often they try and portray themselves in the best light possible.  When it comes to news the photographer is usually someone not attached to the subject or the scene in any way.  They are also trying to convey properly the subject but they aim for a more real representation than what we often see on Facebook.  Photographers for magazines are also often impersonal, but they trying to sell something with their images.  For that reason they may try to hide the real meaning of the subject and lead the viewer to believe something that may not be true.

Digital Editing

As a digital painter myself I very rarely see anything wrong with digital alterations of images.  To me it's just another media to create artistic images.  I think the only time I might see it as ethically wrong is if you were taking portraits and the subject either didn't give consent or was openly against you altering their image but it was done anyway.  All other times I have yet to feel anything against digital editing of images.

"...taking their soul".

I think this is an interesting quote, and true in some ways.  Not literally.  But the fact is that in a picture you do portray people, and that may possible show some of who they really are, or in fact show their soul.  If you're not honest about the goal of your photo or why you're taking a picture of that person then if you mis-portray them it is somewhat unfair to them.  It's wrong to use images of a person without properly explaining what they're being used for.

Recreate 2

Original

The original image I chose is an untitled image by Rinko Kawauchi, a Japanese photographer.  I really liked the soft feel of her work and her tendency towards off center compositions.  She also constrains all her pieces to a square format which I found interesting because it forces the artist to become more creative with their composition.

Assignment 1 Image #3: Memory

Part 1: This image was originally from the set that asked me to take multiple pictures of one subject, in many different angles.  I did little beginning planning but developed ideas as I shot.  With over 70 images I created in this set, I had plenty of time to experiment and create moods by focusing on certain aspects of the subject.  Perspective plays a great part in the mood of a piece, and this perspective along with the focus creates a feeling of nostalgia.  It’s like trying to remember something but forgetting some of the most important details and seeing others in a blur.  Because the subject is a stuffed animal it enforces this feeling of past childhood days.

Part 2: The composition of this image was well received, though I was asked why I decided to crop out the head, to which I didn't exactly have a good answer.  Over all I think it was decided that the picture worked well, other than it was somewhat grainy in some areas.  I think from here it might be interesting to do a series based off of the idea of nostalgia.  Someone mentioned that it looked like a stuffed animal that was left behind or forgotten and a series on that idea might be interesting.

Assignment 1 Image #2: Gaggle

Part 1:  Originally I set out to shoot geese with the fast shutter speed and capture them in flight.  When I approached the lake I was surprised to find easily 200 geese waiting to fly south.  I wanted to try and capture them to show the sheer amount of geese in this gaggle.  Using my zoom I attempted to sneak up on them, though there were so many that it was nearly impossible.  I eventually took some nice photos with an interesting composition by focusing on the tree and have the geese slowly blur into the background.   In a way this photo represents the changing of the seasons, as geese themselves represent a transition from warm to cold weather, and the coming of fall.

Part 2:  I don't think the geese were as well received as my other two images, but there were no negative comments about this image that I remember.  I think the composition works well as well as the lighting.  From here I could do a series of fun nature photography.

Assignment 1 Image #1: Porkchop Doppelganger

Note: Porkchop is the name of the reindeer.

Part 1:  In this image I wanted to use the slow shutter speed to create a double image of the subject, in a ghostlike manner, thus responding to the prompt of “doppelganger”.  Setting the camera on the ground and extremely slowing the shutter speed I just moved the stuffed animal to try and get the affect I desired.  I used the strong lighting to further enhance the feeling of insubstantiality.   Originally I was just shooting with the hopes of coming across a quality image in terms of composition, and I was happy to create this one.  The main figure stands looking (almost in surprise I like to think) at the other, who is just peaking into the frame.  The idea was inspired by a friend of mine.  We did a photoshoot using the slow shutter speed to create ghost like figures and I thought the idea would translate well to making a doppelganger.

Part 2:  This image was received well, and I think it accomplishes what I intended.  There was one comment that it may be overexposed, but it was retracted.  It was agreed that the light helps the feel of the image.  I think this image could lead to a series of fun doppelganger type images, using ordinary things and giving them a sort of life through two images of them.

"If I could tell a story in words..."

    There are many things that photographs are better at explaining.  I think in general photos or picture are better for just a single moment, a single mood or idea while words are better for sequences and continuous events.  Photographs also tend to be more emotional.  People can read quite a bit emotion into a single photo while words can (but not always) seem more cold and rational.  Words are better for sequences because with a picture you could guess what came before or what it will lead too, and the photographer can even try and imply certain things but the only thing you know for certain is what you see.  With words the writer can explicitly explain what is and will be going on.

"Nothing is as it appears"

     I very much agree with the quote that nothing is as it appears.  As artists we learn how to create moods and set things up to show what we want.  Photographers set up most of their shoots and control everything from lighting to placing of the elements.  We have to change things in order to try and show what they truly are, or at least how we perceive them.

Project #0, Recreate

I received a collage by Hannah Hoch to recreate.  I didn't wanted to use any collage processes but I still wanted to experiment with the scale change in the figures.

The Word Photograph

     A photograph is, by definition, a picture created by photography.  And photography of course has a somewhat more complicated definition, something along the lines of the art of creating pictures on sensitized surfaces.  Or so dictionary.com tells me.  But to me, as I touched on in my last post, photography is mostly just a form of communication.  If photography itself is a language, than photos are the words.  It's a language full of emotion and insight.  Just like any other language it can be used to almost any purpose.  It can reveal truths, it can lie, and it has it's own sorts of misunderstandings.  Photography can be manipulated and it has multiple levels of understanding.  It can be one of the strongest form of communication, able to create a window into someone else's world, that any other language might not be able to do.

A World Without Photographs

     Imagining a world without photos is a difficult task.  We've lived in a world so focused on imagery that it's hard to fathom how we'd live without it.  I feel that a world without photos would be missing a very large part of communication.  Pictures are involved in so many things: news, magazines, ads and multitudes of personal uses.
     It makes me think of something I was told of while I was in Japan.  In ancient Japan, people would receive the skins of tigers by trading with other countries (namely China).  Very few people had actually traveled to see a tiger.  The only thing they had to go on about it's appearance was the skins and some (probably exaggerated) stories from those few travelers.  The Japanese were fascinated by these mysterious creatures and they appeared in much of their art.  But as very few people knew how to portray a tiger they tended to vary and appear very unnatural.  Now, we could bring this into a modern day and put it in the context of the internet.  I could tell you I have very long brown hair and bright blue eyes.  I'm 5'7", not exactly skinny, but definitely not really fat either.  You still have no idea what I look like.  There are not enough words in the world to properly describe me, but if you saw one picture there would be no need to try.  We could spend our lives trying to tell each other how beautiful the Florence Cathedral is, what that cute guy from the party looked like, or what is going on overseas, yet never get the point across.
     In the end, photographs are something that bring us experiences that we would not otherwise have.  We would constantly have to try and imagine, with absolutely no idea, what things were.  They help us convey ideas and thoughts, and in many ways are more efficient than words.